I've heard some folks have seen their scores posted on the comp website. I have not. I'm wondering if I'm just still being too impatient or my entries never made it. has anyone else seen their scores posted?

I've got a partigyle on my dance card. First runnings will be a strong belgian wheat wine/super saison with coconut sugar. Gonna land somewhere around 1.116. I've got a nice big cake of belgian yeast blend ready to go for that one. sort of a farm mansion beer.

Second runnings will be a non-traditional wit by capping the mash with a few kilos of flaked kamut, a couple more kilos of pale malt, and a lb of crystal 15. that one gets some corriander, black pepper, citrus zest and possible a touch of chamomile.

I've got a passle of sour beers some of which are destined for bottles soon. I suspect I will get a better final product with a little blending and I'm wondering how folks prefer to do the test blending.

I am planning on pulling a couple oz of each beer (I can't pull too much as I'm only working with a couple gallons of each) and dosing the one that I see as the 'base' beer with measured amount of the character beers. I've got three beers to work with.

1) a farmhouse ale fermented with dregs from the Almanac Brewers Reserve series I (or maybe II) that has been in my 20 liter balcones barrel for ~ 8 months. This beer is suprisingly mild with subdued sourness and funk and a hint of oak.2) a 'sourdough' ale ~ 1 year old brewed with a more traditional lambic recipe, mostly pils, some flaked wheat and some old saaz for ~7 IBU. It was fermented with a sourdough starter that originated in Italy and came to me via Napa. It has been ageing in glass on the yeast cake the whole time. It has a fairly neutral flavor with a hint of chianti but with a distinct bite that I get from other sourdough ales I've tried.3) an IPA base recipe brewed ~ 1 month ago. It was extra wort from the kettle that, after setting out in my backyard for 3 or 4 hours got rescued from the compost and pitched with the cake from the beer that's in the barrel. That cake was sitting in my fridge for a year so I pitched the whole thing which should have been a disaster but actually has turned out quite well (so far)

when all is said and done I would guess I have about 8 gallons of beer here; ~3 gallons of beer 1, 2 gallons of beer 2, and 3 gallons of beer 3.

I might like to bottle some of each straight but I also don't want to spend all day bottling.

With the young beer I suppose I should consider expected final gravities of ~ 1.000 so I should take that into account in any beer I blend with that.

I got a decent acoustic ibanez about 1.5 years ago and it's really spurred me to actually learn how to play. I don't know a lot yet but I really enjoy just jamming around a key for 1 or 20 minutes here or there.

There is something viscerally enjoyable about coaxing what seems to be coherent language out of an instrument and recognizing it as coherent even though I can't actually put me finger on what it's saying, at least not in words.

The whole pentatonic scale is kind of weird, it just seems like each note really makes sense in relation to each other.

A friend asked, me being from vermont and all, if I can get someone back east to ship some of this out here to cali. Well, not being willing to ask anyone to wait in line to get this beer, and ship it out here so it will not be in optimal condition I suggested she might just as well split the cost of a 5 gallon batch with me and get 2.5 gallons for 35 bucks instead of 1 or 2 cans.

Don't know if she is going to take me up on it but I am not intrigued. been looking up recipes and the grian bill seems pretty straight forward being pearl, maybe a little light crystal, maybe some wheat, and maybe some sugar. The hop bill is overwhelming and differs a lot from recipe to recipe.

20 liter rum barrel, <1 year old basic farmhouse ale fermented with dregs from Almanac Farmers Reserve: This is a really mild sour beer for how long it's been ageing. not oxidized or overly sour so I guess the bees wax seal on the barrel is helping. Doesn't blow my socks off but a really nice complex but subtle beer. easy drinking and you'd never know it's been through a years ageing in a barrel, really subtle wood character.

2.5 gallon batch fermented with a sourdough starter originally from a mail order Italian culture kept for a couple years in Napa before I got it, stepped it up in wort and fermented this batch with: I've noticed this in another 'sourdough' beer I've taste, from Almanac actually, a harshness that was not there in the wort. this was a very low bitterness wort brewed to 1.051 with ~6 IBU of old saaz. A touch of sourness but mostly that slightly harsh edge. Not bad, maybe a good candidate for blending though.

3 gallons of sour farmhouse with cherries that wasn't bottled last fall. Simple farmhouse ale recipe with flaked rye fermented with a yeast blend of belgian ale, belgian blend, and american farmhouse blend then pitched with dregs from various sour beers in secondary and sweet cherries added: This is still my favorite of my sour beers good cherry flavor without being in your face cherry. a hint of acetic character but in a balanced way with the barnyardy funk. I think I'll just add 3 more gallons of beer to this one and let it ride a while longer. maybe some more cherries too.

3.5 gallons of IPA wort I overbrewed on my last batch (~2 weeks ago) and pitched with the year old cake of Almanac dregs from Sour #1 above: this is promising. sourness and funk are still pretty subtle but I suspect it will develop over time. I might try blending some of this with some of what's in the barrel.

I just kegged an IPA for a contest with entries due friday. Not a huge problem, I forced carbed most of the way right away and then will let it sit at ~20psi for a couple days before bottling. But of course that means I am tasting it now and it tastes yeast and gross and I just can't imagine it getting good. I know it likely will (it's a new recipe so, maybe not) but the waiting oh the waiting.